Humidifiers of this kind have been well known and disclosed as in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 36976/1982 and Japanese Utility Model application No. 189621/1984 that was filed by the present applicant. In a conventional humidifier of this type, a demineralizer is mounted in a water tank, and therefore the whole structure is compact. Further, the air inside the water tank is smoothly exchanged with the outside air through an air exchange pipe. This makes it easy to drop the water inside the tank to a saucer. In addition, it is easy to mount and withdraw the demineralizer through the water supply port in the water tank. It is not necessary to form a further port to mount the demineralizer into the tank. This introduces the advantage that locations at which water leaks are few.
However, the conventional humidifier constructed as described above has disadvantages. Specifically, the container of the demineralizer or the portion to be connected to the housing of the demineralizer is made from a flexible synthetic resin. Further, the specific gravity of the ion-exchange resin is smaller than that of water. Therefore, when the demineralizer is introduced into the water tank, the container of the demineralizer may not certainly lie on its side in position on the bottom of the tank. Thus, the container may rock within the water or even float on the water. Since it is difficult to cause the container of the demineralizer to lie on its side in position, water cannot be stably supplied from the water tank through the demineralizer to the saucer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing disadvantages with the prior art device, it is the object of the present invention to provide a humidifier which has the same advantages as the aforementioned prior art humidifier, yet allows the container of a demineralizer to be certainly and stably placed in position on the bottom of a water tank, whereby water can be supplied from the tank through the demineralizer to a saucer.
The above object is achieved by a humidifier comprising: a closed water tank detachably mounted on the body of the humidifier; a demineralizer having a container containing ion-exchange resin; an air exchange pipe for introducing the outside air; the water tank having a water supply port through which the demineralizer and the air exchange pipe can be inserted into the water tank; a housing disposed below the container of the demineralizer and defining a chamber, one hollow end of the container of the demineralizer being rotatably connected to the chamber such that the container is in communication with the chamber; and a resilient means for always causing the container of the demineralizer to lie on its side.